SwanCap announced yesterday that it successfully closed its second private equity fund with 600 million euros of commitments (download here the press release).
In December 2013 HVB (Unicredit group)  announced the spin-off of its private equity activity (download here the press release), having sold parts of its private equity portfolio (about one billion euros of international private equity funds’ stakes) to the SwanCap Opportunities Fund SCS-SIF. The fund is managed by SwanCap Investment Management sa, a newly founded investment company with its registered office in Luxembourg.
The fund is advised by SwanCap Partners GmbH, a newly founded advisory company headquartered in Germany where all 15 members of Unicredit’s Principal Investments team have been trasferred, starting from the head of Principal Investments, Florian Kreitmeier, who will be soon followed by the head of Principal Investments in Italy, Cesare Buzzi (being already an active member of the SwanCap team, see here the SwanCap team).
The new fund, SwanCap Opportunities Fund II SCS, starts in turn with a portfolio of assets coming from Unicredit’s portfolio (both private equity funds’ stakes and Private equity direct investments) which is valued about two thirds out of the 600 million euros total, the remaining third consisting in new cash committed by international investors which will be used for new private equity and private debt investments. Evercore´s Private Capital Advisory Group advised UniCredit on the transaction.
The second fund has actually been placed with a diverse investor base from Europe, the US and Asia. These investors include pension plans, insurance companies, and sovereign wealth funds in addition to family offices. Ardian, the French private investment company, acted as one of the investors as the price and term setter in the transaction. Ardian was also the acquiror of a one billion euros tranche of private equity assets’ portfolio from Unicredit last September.
Today SwanCap manages over 2.5 billion euros in assets and provides investors with access to private equity strategies, both funds and direct equity, as well as private debt strategies via it sunique network in Western Europe, Emerging Europe and North America.